SPRING'S BIG QUESTION:

SHOULD THERE BE PARENTAL LIMITS ON TECH DEVICES?

REAGAN SAYS YES!

Yes, I think that parents should limit time on screens.

Children who spend long periods of time using technology are more prone to obesity. A group of child health specialists have found a link between rising child obesity levels and periodic exposure to social media. According to Dr. Adamos Hadjipanayis, Assistant Professor of Paediatrics, parents should limit the use of computers and similar devices to no more than 90 minutes a day and only if the child is older than four years of age. The average toddler today spends an hour watching TV, says Olivia Petter, author of Parents Should Limit a Childs’ Screen Time. Many children are watching over seven hours of TV a day. Childhood obesity is now the No. 1 health concern among parents in the United States, topping drug abuse and smoking says the American Heart Association. In my opinion, limited screen time will be helpful for children, but there are a few things you should know before cutting it short completely. Chat with your child about what they think is a reasonable amount of screen time. The depth of the conversation will depend on the age of your child. Toddlers to teens will all have their own thoughts; both will likely start with an absurdly high number. But instead of knocking their number out of the way, make a compromise that you both agree to. I agree that limiting tech time will benefit all children and is an action that should be taken. All in all, I believe that adults and children should have limited screen time to benefit their lives as we know it will.

LUCY SAYS NO

No, I do not think that parents should limit time on tech devices.

For starters, there’s more educational stuff online than everyone seems to think. Kids on their devices aren’t always playing games. Often, we’re doing something for school or just researching something we find interesting. When we didn’t have phones, people had to go to libraries to find information. Now, we have a more immersive and entertaining way of obtaining that same information, so you can see why we’d want to spend more time on our tech devices. Some adults fail to understand how kids socialize on tech devices, too. They are a way of communicating in a way our parents couldn’t. We use them not only to stay in touch with friends but also to have discussions with classmates, and socialize in other ways.

Secondly, parents of our generation should be able to trust their kids enough to let them manage their own time on tech devices. They should educate them as to the pros and cons of ‘living’ online, and then trust the kid enough to let them make their own decisions about online activity.

Finally, managing time, both on tech devices and in real life, is an extremely important lifeskill that kids need to learn. If parents take away the ability to make mistakes online, they take away the ability to learn from them, too.

This is why I believe that parents, or legal guardians, shouldn’t limit time on tech devices

So, the big question is, what do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments and vote below!